Live in the moment

The meaning of living in the moment

Life happens in the present- you can experience and react only to events that happen right now.

Every moment is a new beginning. It’s like a restart of life, that’s created from scratch each instant.

Living in the moment is focusing your mind only on the events that happen in the present.

But there is a challenge: your mind can ‘jump’ to the past and the future, or be in other situations that are not where you chose to be. Due to both future concerns and looking back on your past, you can easily find yourself disconnected from the present.

Living in the moment means being with your mind here and now. It can be challenging but it’s essential to life because every moment in life is a new beginning and when you live in the present you can take full advantage of the possibilities life presents to you.

Many things can pull you from being in the moment and disconnect you from the situation you decided to be in.

The following recommendations will help you stay in the present.

Read it now and use it whenever you feel that you’re disconnected from the present moment.

1) Keep your breathing free.

Take three deep and full breaths, feel the air coming and going. After you finish, you can feel the difference between after the deep and full breaths, and before (regular breathing). In your routine, there are many distractions that reduce your breathing like trying to focus on something, stress, fears, worries. These distractions not only effect your breathing but also your ability to stay in the present. So, keep breathing fully and freely; it connects you to the rhythm of life.

2) Accept any change in reality

Sometimes you don’t get what you expected, and you react with disappointment and resistance to this undesired reality. Unfortunately this attitude doesn’t help to change things but only disconnects you from the present. Accept any change and outcome, even if it’s undesired. It can be hard not to get what you want, but only when you accept the reality as it is can you make a change.

3) Find your rhythm in life.

Things have to occur at their own rhythm. In life, anything worthwhile takes time. It’s sowing the seed with knowing that it will take time for the tree to grow. You can’t enjoy the fruits if you just planted the seed. You have to be patient and find your rhythm of life starting from the beginning until you reach the outcome. In the meantime, enjoy the journey.

4) Live with your fears.

Fears are part of life. You’ll run into your fears every time you try new experiences.

Living with fears is part of the excitement when you experience new things. In fact, the reason you enjoy new experiences is because of fear. Fear creates excitement.

Trying to resist or to avoid fears disconnects you from the present and produces tension, nervousness and anxiety. Just see your fears as part of life; let them be part of your experiences.

5) Belief in yourself.

We are living in an uncertain world, with no guarantees about the future. Concerns about the future don’t help. Therefore don’t let those concerns pull you away from the present moment. Just believe that you are doing the best you can in any situation. You don’t have to puff yourself up to gain self-esteem, but just do your best at every moment and hope the right things will happen. It’s having a positive attitude about yourself and the world that makes positive things happen.

6) Leave the past behind.

The past already past by, you can’t change it. Dealing with the past is not useful and causes you to miss precious moments in your life that won’t come back.

If something went wrong, there’s no point in trying to fix it, let it to become a memory. Move on with life and instead of trying to fix the past, focus on the fixing the present- it will make the change.

7) The future is for making plans and setting goals.

We have to take care of the future but concerns and worries about the future make you try to control it, with endless thoughts about how things might go wrong running through your head. This practice doesn’t help but only makes you disconnect from the present. In the present, you only can make plans and set goals for the future. Because the future is uncertain, you can’t control the outcome. You can only hope for the best, nothing else.

8) Focus your mind.

In our physical world, you can be in your mind and body in one place and time. Trying to be in multiple places and do multiple things in your mind opens your mind to unuseful thoughts and spreads your attention thin, which means you become disconnected from the present.

Therefore, focus your mind in the present moment, and do one thing at the time. You are more efficient when you focus your mind on one task and don’t spread yourself too thin.

9) Let go and enjoy.

We have the desire to succeed. Therefore, we try to control our life to get the things that we want, but the other part of life is to enjoy and experience.

That’s why we need a balance between taking control and letting go. Taking control is to make sure we have a direction in life, a route to walk on from here into the future, and letting go is the stage of enjoying the outcome of our efforts.

10) Be creative.

Every moment is a new beginning. That’s why if you want to make the most of any moment and enjoy your life, be creative and do things differently. You don’t need adventure to have new experiences in life but rather to choose a new attitude in your routine. This means that instead of searching for the secure and familiar in your routine, you be creative and act differently. Even minor change makes a difference.